The Rise of Video Marketing (Social Media)

The Rise of Video Marketing (Social Media)

According to Cisco, video will make up 80% of all consumer internet traffic by 2020. Video Content is growing, and it won’t stop anytime soon. But, why exactly is it growing so quick, and what social media platforms is it most effective in?

Why is Video Content growing?

We see GIFS’s a lot on Social Media, especially on Twitter, because they allow a few frames of movement that is just much more engaging than a motionless picture.

Video Content is a much more powerful tool to engage, inform and entertain people with much more creative freedom. You have more room to play with on video, whether it be short 10-second-long clip or a 5-minute interview.

The biggest reason video content is growing so fast is that marketers have realised that video can directly influence a potential customer’s buying habits. According to Google, nearly 59% of internet users will look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store. Shoppers who view a product demonstration video are 1.81 times more likely to make a purchase than non-viewers.

What Social Media Platforms are best for Video Marketing?

YouTube

YouTube is the 2nd biggest search engine in the World, after Google. It is also a popular social media platform to share video content and build communities. There are over One Billion users on YouTube, which amounts to almost 1/3 of the internet, who view more than 500 million hours of video each day.

According to YouTube themselves, their site, and even just their mobile app alone reaches more 18 to 34 and 18 to 49-year olds than any cable network in the US. I would say that this would also apply in the UK. Either way, there is a huge pool of opportunity on YouTube, without the expensive advertising you would find on TV.

When creating content, you should optimise Titles, Videos and Tags to increase the amount of exposure from SEO and try to increase video engagement through shares, likes and comments. If you want to maximise exposure, you can pay for your videos to show up in the video ads before a video plays on YouTube.

You can also embed YouTube videos on your website, which could increase your Web Traffic as adding video content to a Web page is good SEO practice, and will also build your YouTube views.

Facebook

Facebook is the biggest social media network, and online community in the world. There are over 2 Billion monthly active users on Facebook users, with 66% of active users using Facebook daily. Video Content is very important on Facebook. An average of 500 million people are watching videos daily, 12 minutes a day per user.

Mark Zuckerberg himself said that “Video is an important part of the Facebook experience”, and with the company investing huge amounts to improve their video players, automatic subtitling and overall video experience, it is clear to see that a Video Marketing Strategy is now the way to go on Facebook.

Videos auto-play by default as you scroll down you feed, meaning they will stand out from text and pictures. You will need to make sure that the first few seconds of your video is able to attract the attention of users and hook them in.

Paid video ads on Facebook are a great and cost-effective way to increase your brand awareness. Facebook has some tips on how to create video adverts using mobile apps, which is a great way to start if you are new to creating video content.

Twitter

There are over 330 million monthly active users on Twitter, with 82% of users watching video content on Twitter. It is a huge social media platform that shouldn’t be ignored, especially when video is the most effective type of content on the platform.

Twitter says that video content thrives on its platform and is growing at a rapid rate. Video views have grown 220x what they were just 12 months ago. Videos are 6x more likely to be retweeted than Tweets with photos, and are 3x more likely to be retweeted than Tweets with GIFs.

Videos also auto-play on Twitter by default, and just as with Facebook and YouTube, you can advertise your videos on Twitter to increase your brand awareness without trying to promote your videos or brand by yourself. Twitter also has some helpful best practices on creating video content.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a great platform to share video content and build a following for your business. Although not the most populated, it is the best place to connect with people who work within your industry.

For B2B business, LinkedIn is a powerful tool that can help you make the right first impression. Just recently, video ads have arrived on LinkedIn and are a great opportunity to increase your brand awareness and build B2B leads.

Video ads, just as with regular videos, will play automatically on your feed by default, and according to a test from LinkedIn using more than 700 advertisers since October 2017, video ads had nearly 3x longer engagement than regular sponsored content.

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